Kentucky has long considered itself the center of the basketball universe and with good reason.

When the universities of Kentucky and Louisville square off just after 6 p.m. Saturday during the Final Four in New Orleans, there will be a combined 24 Final Fours and nine national titles on the floor.

The Shelby County School Board committed to getting the multipurpose field at Collins High School in use by pledging Thursday to spend $239,855 to repair the drainage around the field and add lime stabilization beneath it.

The Shelby County Board of Education tabled the proposed school calendar change during Thursday’s meeting at the district’s office, asking for more input from staff, parents and students before deciding on a change.

Heather Bogard, a senior at Shelby County High School, addressed the board, asking members not to approve the recommended change, which would have added one day to the calendar. The proposed change moved the last day of school to June 4, and graduation from June 2 to June 9.

This week, our so-called one percent is made up not of an economic group but of those Kentuckians who are not incorrigibly immersed in college basketball.

Are you thinking of anything other than Saturday’s big game in New Orleans? Can you wait? Breath bated? Bets down? Pride bursting? Have family gatherings, civic events and, oh, nuptials and funerals fallen off your Super Doppler?

To heck with Florida vs. the United States Department of Health and Human Services. This is UK vs. UofL in the NCAA semifinals.

We were concerned to hear that an F1 tornado touched down in Shelby County on Friday, but we were terrified to learn later that residents in some pockets of the county didn’t hear storm sirens and weren’t warned of a dangerous weather system that was approaching.

Shelby County Emergency Management Agency Director Paul Whitman said the sirens were sounded when a surprising siege of funnel clouds were spotted by radar moving east from Jefferson County around 2:30 p.m.

One of those clouds had descended near Jeffersontown and done significant damage.

Shelby County scratched out only two hits against visiting Garrard County this past Thursday afternoon, but the Rockets still managed to beat the Golden Lions, 6-2, at the Shelby County Athletic Complex.

“I thought we did a great job of situational hitting,” Shelby County Coach Bart “Rudy” Roettger said. “With only two hits we did a great job of being aggressive on the bases, moving base runners, getting runners in when they were in scoring position and getting bunts down when the situation called for it.